{"id":8718167,"date":"2023-01-17T10:07:07","date_gmt":"2023-01-17T18:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eastbaytimes.com\/?p=8718167&preview=true&preview_id=8718167"},"modified":"2023-01-17T10:25:21","modified_gmt":"2023-01-17T18:25:21","slug":"three-bodies-found-in-pontiac-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eastbaytimes.com\/2023\/01\/17\/three-bodies-found-in-pontiac-field\/","title":{"rendered":"Mother, two young sons found frozen to death in Michigan field"},"content":{"rendered":"

The bodies of Monica Cannady and her two sons, Kyle Milton Jr., 8, and Malik Milton 3, were found Sunday near the corner of Branch Street and Gillespie Avenue in Pontiac. A third child, a 10-year-old girl, survived and is currently hospitalized and recovering from hypothermia, according to Sheriff Mike Bouchard.<\/p>\n

He said an autopsy shows Cannady and her sons died from hypothermia and their deaths are considered accidental. National Weather Service records show temperatures Saturday night into Sunday morning were in mid-to-low 20s, then high teens, with wind chills falling to 10 degrees.<\/p>\n

Bouchard said Cannady has been having severe mental health issues and was frightened that people were trying to kill her, including her family members and police. He said police learned from her surviving daughter that she had instructed her children to run and hide if anyone approached them.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, he said, she told her children to lie down in a field to go to sleep. Only the girl woke up. When she couldn\u2019t rouse her family, she took her mother\u2019s coat and walked to a nearby home to ask for help, he said. She told the person who answered the door that her family was dead in the field.<\/p>\n

\"officials\"
Pontiac City Councilwoman Melanie Rutherford, Sheriff Mike Bouchard and Pontiac Mayor Tim Greimel talk about the death of Monica Cannady and her two sons on Monday, Jan. 16, 2022. (Peg McNichol\/MediaNews Group) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The family wasn\u2019t homeless, Bouchard said, but Cannady\u2019s mental health issues kept her away from her apartment, about a mile from where she and her sons died. He said there\u2019s no indication that drugs played any role in the tragedy but results of the toxicology test will take weeks. The children\u2019s father, Kyle Milton, was shot dead in Nov. 4, 2021<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The trial for the man accused of his murder and another man\u2019s death is currently underway, with closing arguments<\/a> set for Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a mental-health crisis. She had housing. She had a family that cared,\u201d Bouchard said, adding that her family had been trying to arrange in-patient care for Cannady when she disappeared.<\/p>\n

Bouchard said once Cannady\u2019s daughter recovers from hypothermia, she\u2019ll be released to the care of family members.<\/p>\n

He emphasized the importance of people getting mental health help as soon as possible and for family members to make calls for those who cannot help themselves. Cannady\u2019s family had been making calls, he said, but she refused.<\/p>\n

Mayor Tim Greimel urged people to get mental health support when they are in a crisis.<\/p>\n

Bouchard, Greimel and others said the deaths were preventable.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was preventable if we all communicated with each other,\u201d Bouchard said. \u201cAt the point when the family knew a crisis was developing, if they called us or these phone numbers (referring to county resource numbers) then we would have popped up assets to look for the kids and the mom. We would have known it was something more than just maybe somebody was walking down the street who didn\u2019t have a coat on.\u201d<\/p>\n

When police were alerted by neighbors that they\u2019d spotted a woman and some children not dressed for the weather, deputies were unable to find any trace of them. Signs in the area say there are cameras watching the land, but Bouchard said he\u2019s not aware of any cameras there.<\/p>\n

This neighborhood on Pontiac\u2019s southside just north of Crystal Lake could be called peaceful or desolate. Monday morning, only the sound of birds interrupted the quiet as a small white dog wandered placidly across a few lawns. The street signs at the corner were gone, but the pole remains. Trash litters the street, with garbage bags and old tires dumped just outside the Lakeside property fence. Even the fence is damaged, leaving a wide opening to the uncultivated land.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s desolate, said two women standing outside their family home smoking cigarettes early Monday morning, a few doors away from the old Lakeside property. One had wrapped a blanket over her clothes as insulation from the 19-degree wind chill. Frost covered car windows, grass and trees, even as the sun rose. Neither woman wanted to be named, but they talked about seeing police cars converge at the corner on Monday. They expressed sorrow at not being able to help the family.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish they would have knocked on our door. We have the brightest light here,\u201d said the woman in the blanket, gesturing to a spotlight above the garage doors. She would like to see some action from city officials to clean up the Lakeside property \u2013 at least to cut down the trees and brush, which make the site attractive to homeless people and others. The women aren\u2019t thrilled about a small grove of saplings on the northeast corner of Branch and Gillespie, because in a few years, they said, that will also become a magnet for people looking for shelter.<\/p>\n

The incident happened in Councilwoman Melanie Rutherford\u2019s district, on the city\u2019s south side. She called the situation tragic and personal. As a younger, pregnant woman, Rutherford faced sleeping outside in cold weather. But she was able to get into a shelter and the next day workers there helped her find a home and benefits so she could get groceries and other supplies.<\/p>\n

People now have fewer resources, Rutherford said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe absolutely need to address affordable housing, homelessness and mental health,\u201d she said. \u201cWe absolutely need to protect the most-vulnerable people in our community.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said a tragedy like Monica Cannady and her sons\u2019 deaths must never be allowed to happen again.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to have this hard conversation. Now. Or somebody else is going to die,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Black women are often hesitant to ask for help, because of what she called \u201cstrong Black woman syndrome,\u201d which prevents Black women in particular from admitting their vulnerability in a crisis. She wants to see the stigma attached to mental illness erased.<\/p>\n

Like Rutherford, Councilman Mikal Goodman said he is distraught by the deaths, which he also called preventable.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo person should be dying from exposure, and by extension any form of housing or shelter insecurity, when we have so many resources at our collective disposal,\u201d he said. \u201cThere were multiple failures that lead up to this, and we need to figure out what they are so we can fix them so that this does not happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bouchard said the county has a lot of programs, including Coats for the Cold, and deputies typically carry mittens or gloves to hand out when they spot people in need.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t have it on our radar about a particular mom or three kids or a crisis,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Society is replete with people suffering from anxiety, depression and other mental-health challenges, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes strength to ask for help, it\u2019s not weakness,\u201d Bouchard said. \u201cIf it\u2019s encouraged and if we have more mental-health resources available to everybody, I think it will go a long way.\u201d<\/p>\n

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For now, he said, police respond daily to suicides and overdoses.<\/p>\n

\u201cOftentimes, overdoses are self-medication. Basically we\u2019re seeing death every day as a result of the mental-health crisis in this country,\u201d he said, adding that police are challenged with the mental health crisis both in their daily work and in their personal lives<\/p>\n

Increased funding for mental health services from state and federal agencies would help, he said, pointing to a $1.3 million cut from his office\u2019s annual budget two years ago. Last year, he said, he added two positions dedicated to community mental health services. One is a license mental health worker to works with deputies when they go on crisis calls. The other is a peer-support deputy to work with sheriff\u2019s office employees.<\/p>\n